


veracity

by AlexSeanchai



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Akumatized Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Episode: s03 Ladybug, F/M, Ladybug Adrien Agreste | Mister Bug, Lila Rossi's Lies Are Exposed, Podfic Welcome, Post-Reveal Pre-Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Rules Lawyering, Truth Spells
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:01:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22534381
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: The earrings Marinette always wears, important enough to her that she took them off before Hawkmoth's power overcame her, are dark cabochons.The earrings Marinette hid in his pocket, under cover of shoving him out of her way, are mother-of-pearl in Adrien's hand.(Nathalie didn't collapse.)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 36
Kudos: 1254





	veracity

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Verity Queen Marinette](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/555952) by graaythekwami. 



> prompt: _say what you want_. What three-sentence rule?

"I don't know!" Mister Bug tells Verity Queen, laughing, when she asks where the Cat ring is. Truth: he asked Plagg to take it and hide, and he doesn't know where, exactly, Plagg went.

"Probably somewhere in the city?" he says when she asks where the other Miraculouses are, an answer he repeats when she asks where the other Miraculous wielders are. Truth: he doesn't actually know who Rena Rouge or Carapace are—though now he has some good guesses about who they might be—but the wielders whose names he does know, including Master Fù, well, they're _probably_ all still in Paris.

Hawkmoth must shout at her, because she shudders under the argon-glowing mask outline and demands Ladybug's name and his own. "My name is Chat Noir!" he tells them both with exaggerated glee. "And _if_ I were to know any other name Ladybug uses—" Truth, if only because he says this in subjunctive mood, not indicative. "—you would still not get me to say it!"

" _How are you lying to me?_ " screams Verity Queen with one hand on the dagger she hasn't drawn. She will undoubtedly not yet appreciate the irony that _she herself told him_ Marinette Dupain-Cheng is not her name—which means Adrien Agreste must not be his.

It's a direct question, so he is compelled to answer truthfully: "Honesty and trust! What do you _want_ me to say, Verity?"

His every answer is entirely truthful, after all. He doesn't want to be, and she is unable—or, at least as likely because that _is_ his Lady in there, unwilling—to _make_ him be, _informative_.

"I want you to say something that _helps me_!"

"I think I can do that," Mister Bug says cheerily. "How's 'hold still and let me grab your akuma thing'? Does that sound helpful to you?"

Verity Queen folds her arms. "Not in the least!"

He shrugs, calculating approaches and velocities and tactics. "Fine, I'll try again." Slow, he thinks, and direct. She'll see him coming. She won't do anything, if he keeps her attention where he wants it. "This is my fault," he says. "When I got your father akumatized, I told him you're important to me. Didn't occur to me Hawkmoth overheard." An oversight for which he will kick himself for a _long_ time. "I should have known he'd target you, Princess. I'm sorry."

She freezes. "I'm—I'm important to you?"

How does she not _know_ this? "You know you are," Chat Noir tells Ladybug, stepping closer. "Or if you don't know that," Adrien tells Marinette, stepping closer, "that's my fault too."

"…You care about me?"

He smiles a little, wanting to cry. "You know I do. Don't you?"

Verity Queen goes pink in the face, then pale. "The girl you love," she snaps. "What's her name?"

"You already know her name. Marinette. She's Ladybug. You _knew_ that."

And if Hawkmoth assumes that first pause is a _comma_ , that is _not_ Mister Bug's fault.

Trembling, she sinks to her knees.

Mister Bug wraps both arms around her and snatches the sheathed dagger from her hip—it makes sense: he saw the red butterfly land on her purse, that's the same place her purse sits, and truth hurts, right?—and snaps the handle loose from the blade.

And whips his yo-yo out to catch the butterfly.

"What—" says Marinette, then "Oh no."

Somehow the simple phrase scares him worse than any of her high-speed catastrophizing ever has.

Mister Bug scoops her up and leaps for the nearest roof: now that Verity Queen is no longer holding court, Marinette is undoubtedly fair game for any of the other Scarlet Fever–boosted akumas. "Plagg should be somewhere in the school," he whispers in her ear en route. "Check my bag first—his Camembert stash is there even if he's not. When you get back, I'll yell at you: I don't mean it but play along. I'm sorry about Desperada, I'm _really_ sorry I didn't listen about Lila, and we gotta talk about with Kwamibuster."

"Chat Noir, what—I don't understand." Marinette's words almost sound true.

"I thought my two favorite girls were _splitting_ the burden," he reminds her. There—her balcony: she will have no trouble getting down unseen from there. "Didn't seem worth asking why you didn't take sixty more seconds to bedazzle me too."

Marinette snorts.

Mister Bug grabs her by the shoulders, as he so often does to help ground her. "I can't lose you," he tells her. "I _can't_."

He also can't take time for a heart-to-heart right now. Zombizou alone was more than enough fun the first time, and he's not sure what Princess Justice's powers are but he has a sneaking suspicion that the Americanism _tell the truth, the **whole** truth, and nothing **but** the truth_ is involved.

"Hurry up," he says, and leaps away.

* * *

The next day, his ring safely back silver-tone on his hand instead of rose-gold on hers, Adrien heads past his desk in order to accost Max at his. "O Calculator of Odds and Keeper of the Akuma Pool," Adrien says, "since Marinette did in fact become the scariest akuma in the class, how much did I just win?"

"Verity Queen hardly did any damage at all," Max protests.

Technically true, and _Adrien_ doesn't know enough to explain how much more damage she _could_ have done just by phrasing questions to be more difficult to evade: he doesn't think he could have avoided telling her, had Verity Queen asked, either Chat Noir's or Ladybug's _legal_ names. He restrains his growl. "Hawkmoth set it up—" He is not accusing Lila of working with Hawkmoth, but he will pointedly not say she's _not_. "—so that when he finally got Marinette akuma-vulnerable, he could launch a rerun of _Heroes' Day_. Led by a shiny new crimson akuma who only didn't beat Chat Noir's ass like a drum because she didn't _want to_. That counts, Max."

"Please, he talked her down before Ladybug even showed up," says Chloé with a sniff.

"Ladybug was supposed to be taking a sick day," Marinette retorts. "You heard him yelling at her for showing up anyway. If she isn't home in bed right now, I'm sure she wants to be."

She's sure, all right, Adrien thinks. He kind of wants to drag her there and tie her down so she stays put: he was worried neither of his favorite girls were sleeping enough, and now he's certain she hardly sleeps at all.

"Anyway, there's no way _I_ have the scariest akumasona," Marinette continues. "After all, you haven't seen Adrien's yet."

Adrien rolls his eyes, heading back down and around to either take his own seat or make off with Alya's, he's not sure yet which. "I am a ball of cotton candy and sunshine and that won't change when I get akumatized. Ask anyone." That is in fact the class's collective opinion, as repeatedly expressed when the betting pool documents come out.

"Says the literal Disney princess," snaps Marinette. "Which, by the way, as akuma experiences go, zero of ten, do not recommend. —And no, Alya, you are still not allowed to blog this one!"

Oh, is _that_ why Papa-Garou is on the Ladyblog mostly as a series of question marks? "I hear self-rescuing princesses are Disney's favorite thing these days."

Marinette leaps up to grab Adrien by the tips of his collar. "I do not believe I have the scariest akumasona," she tells him, each syllable distinctly enunciated. "Remember, you have not seen _yours_ yet."

She pauses, releasing her grip on his shirt to smooth out the wrinkles she just made, then sits back down, turning away.

"I'm worried you'll beat _her_ ass like a drum," Marinette tells her desk. "Because if you don't think she has a crush on you, Adrien, I don't know what footage _you've_ been watching, but clearly none of it shows her looking at you."

Adrien's legs go wobbly enough Marinette has to seat him on the bench beside her before he falls.

"Uh, Marinette," says Alya, standing beside the seat that's usually hers.

"If you're going to tell me Adrien has a crush on Ladybug, save your breath." Marinette's gesturing for Alya to go sit with the equally blankly staring Nino; Adrien can't see Marinette's face right now. "He could have so much worse taste."

Adrien eyes her. "The way you say that, it almost sounds like you think liking her is a sign of _bad_ taste."

Lila swings into the classroom. "Who's got bad taste?"

Even in profile, Adrien can tell the grin is plastered on Marinette's face. "Adrien," she says with affected brightness. "Since he's in love with your best friend, and she must be the _worst_ romance partner."

"—I cannot believe you would say that about Alya!" exclaims Lila. "And with Nino right here, too!"

Alya's eyes almost pop out.

Adrien and Marinette look at each other: in sync, they say "Holy shit, she forgot!"

"I never figured out why anyone bought that in the first place." By 'anyone' Adrien mostly means himself. "Not even Rena Rouge was around yet when Lila said it, so either Chat Noir was Ladybug's best friend or Ladybug didn't have any friends."

"Hawkmoth didn't buy it either," observes Marinette. "Akumas would have been targeting Lila twice a week if he had. Not, you know, gotten her that same day and then forgotten about her for six months and then only gone after her the day she molested you on camera."

"That wasn't—" Adrien stops: Alya's face is turning enough colors. And even if 'molested' is too harsh a word for that kiss he didn't want, he no longer has the least interest in defending Lila. "No, you're right, he would have been paying more attention to people Lila was bothering. Either that or we would have seen more rounds of Volpina and Chameleon and whatever. After he lost the surprise of being able to reakumatize people without the first butterfly getting away from Ladybug, at least."

Wait.

"—Marinette, was this the first time he went for you?"

"No." She sounds angry; she's looking down at her hands, so he can't tell at who. "Zombizou, because Mme. Bustier didn't know projectiles are a bad plan. Chameleon, because I calmed myself down once I saw it. I don't know about any other times."

Both of those attacks were before Papa-Garou, which is weird, Adrien thinks. Of course Marinette's been as much of a target all along as anyone else in the class, for whatever reason their class got targeted to begin with, and probably the plain fact that she managed to not get akumatized till yesterday even though Hawkmoth _tried_ has been pissing him off. And Ladybug's stress levels, like his own, have been getting _worse_ over time, not better (though Adrien can't remember any purple butterflies ever heading his way, not _one_ ), so she should have seen _more_ attempts to akumatize Marinette after Chat Noir blabbed to Papa-Garou, not fewer.

What are they missing here?

Adrien glances at Alya, who's alternately staring at him and glaring at Lila. "You look like you have something you want to say."

"How long have you known she _lied to me_?" Alya demands.

Uh. "About as long as Marinette has? My strategy for dealing with it did not work," he adds.

Marinette yawns, distracting Adrien and everyone, and blushes at the sound of stifled snickers.

Adrien scoots closer to her on the bench to sneak one arm around her waist. "Have I mentioned lately how cute you are?" he asks her.

She goes very red and hides her face in his shoulder. "Only in my dreams," she mumbles.

"And when was that? Serious question, Marinette." He gives her name the same teasing intonation he usually gives 'Buginette'. "When do you sleep?"

"I'm pretty sure I'm sleeping now."

Adrien adds a couple things to the mental checklist of long talks they need to have. "Unlikely," he says. "I'm way too bony a pillow. You make a nice soft blanket, though," he adds. "Stay there as long as you like."

Marinette thumps him on the knee. She does fall asleep ten minutes into the class, though, and Adrien's best Chloé-style 'my father will hear about this' glare does keep Mme. Bustier from trying to wake her up, so it's several levels of win.

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on [Dreamwidth](https://alexseanchai.dreamwidth.org/) and [Tumblr](https://alexseanchai.tumblr.com/).


End file.
